Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

by Roxane Gay

Edited and with an introduction by Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling and deeply beloved author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, this anthology of first-person essays tackles rape, assault, and harassment head-on.

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In this valuable and timely anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence and aggression they face, and where sexual-abuse survivors are 'routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied' for speaking out.

Highlighting the stories of well-known actors, writers and experts, as well as new voices being published for the first time, Not That Bad covers a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation and street harrassment.

Often deeply personal and always unflinchingly honest, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that 'not that bad' must no longer be good enough.

• ISBN10: 0062413511
• ISBN13: 9780062413512
• Publish Date: 1 May 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

Such an essential yet heart dropping read. For people who don't understand what it's like to be on the side of experience and for those of us who unfortunately do. It contains a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.

It does contain some graphic details for those who wish to avoid that.

[clementine]

Anthologies basically always suffer from one or two essays that are just not as resonant or well-constructed as the others, but taken as a whole this is an important and well-realized book. The sheer volume of stories is powerful enough; the clarity with which rape culture is articulated throughout the book gives it gravity. When I first heard of this book I thought the title was a reference to dismissals of sexual assault; now I see that it's also about the way sexual assault survivors try to downplay the events to ourselves.